Southern Minnesota's Big Ag Dilemma

People need agriculture but they also like clean water, maybe reduce productivity for sustainability. If a farmer's having to give up 50 feet of his land for ditches to hold runoff from nitrogen fertilizer/animal waste, Dayton's proposal, then they should be compensated for their land, 16 feet is the current law for ditches to water ways. We need to find a middle ground or implement disposal methods other than the current one. Big Ag is destroying local farmers along with the environment. There should be some measure of accountability when it comes to pollution and Minnesota's government just did away with the Citizens' Board of MPCA after 50 years of conservation all because a few Big Ag companies, who did not have their silver platter handed to them, went elsewhere.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens' Board

Joybubbles

It's been a exciting day learning about Joybubbles.  It all started when I was listening to a podcast on Radiolab from February 2012 called Escape and the last segment of the episode is about Josef Carl Engressia, Jr, aka Joybubbles.  He legally changed his name in 1991 to Joybubbles because at the age of 39 he declared himself a 5 year old in a way to reclaim the childhood that he had lost.  Anyway I became intrigued with his story and started searching him. 

I found out that he was born blind and thus took an early interest in telephones as a way to escape.  He had absolute pitch and could whistle at 2600 hertz which enabled him to hack into the telecommunication grid and thus call anywhere for free.  He lived in Minneapolis and would sometimes do an interactive column for the Pioneer Press and hosted a radio program called "Stories and Stuff" as an outgoing message on his answering machine. His show was along the lines of Mister Rogers, which he was a huge fan of.  He updated the show weekly and made the recordings available to anyone who called the telephone number +1-206-FEELING.  Rachael Morrison is making a documentary on his story.  

Anyway follow the links if you want to learn more about his story.  

A Brave Heart

21st Century Snake Oil

Just wanted to post this video because I love that she made it and totally agree with her.  The majority of these big business organizations, i.e. charities, are manipulating the public and making a mockery of the cause they are supposedly bringing "awareness" too.    I don't want to get into numbers, just do your own research and see how much actually goes towards the cause.  These groups are banking on your blindness of sympathy.  Do research before throwing your money away to any organization, there are good ones out there and usually they are within your own community.  These groups took one right out of religious profiteers' handbook.

Some articles and other info:

http://autisticadvocacy.tumblr.com/post/102634036950/so-why-is-autism-speaks-bad-im-confused

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/speaking-out-against-autism-speaks-even-if-it-means-no-ice-cream/?_r=0

http://www.autistichoya.com/p/introduction-to-autism-faqs-of-autism.html